Climate & environmental law

Where the planet meets precedent.

We explain what is happening to the environment, what the courts are doing about it, and what that means for those affected.

Explore the cases

Waves breaking along a sandy coastline, seen from above

Latest precedentMar Menor v Spain

Precedent timeline

2024Finch v Surrey 2025ICJ climate opinion 2026RimbaWatch v NRES & KPDN 2026Mar Menor v Spain

What we do

People and nature are not separate, and neither is the law that protects them. We explain what is happening to the planet, follow the rulings responding to it, and make both clear enough to act on, for lawyers, campaigners, communities and students.

About Planet & Precedent

In focus

Rulings that moved the law

Mar Menor y su Cuenca v Spain

European Court of Human Rights (three-judge Committee) · 8 October 2026

In what counsel describe as the first case Strasbourg has examined from an ecological legal person, the European Court of Human Rights declared inadmissible an application lodged in the name of the Mar Menor lagoon.

135 km²Size of the Mar Menor, the largest lagoon on the Spanish Mediterranean

639,826Signatures behind the popular initiative that became Law 19/2022

Art. 34The Convention’s victim requirement, where the application stalled

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La Manga del Mar Menor seen from above, the strip of land between the lagoon and the Mediterranean

RimbaWatch v NRES and KPDN

Kuala Lumpur High Court · 23 September 2026

RimbaWatch complained to two Malaysian ministries about a fossil fuel-derived product marketed as “carbon neutral”.

2Ministries that each said the complaint was outside their jurisdiction

Same dayBoth replies arrived on 30 September 2025, each pointing to the other ministry

No reasonsThe High Court has not yet published written grounds for its ruling

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The Palace of Justice in Putrajaya, Malaysia

Obligations of States in respect of Climate Change

International Court of Justice · 23 July 2025

Requested by the UN General Assembly after a campaign started by law students in the Pacific, the Court’s opinion confirmed that states have binding obligations under international law to protect the climate system, and that breaching them can engage state responsibility.

UnanimousThe Court’s answer to the General Assembly’s questions

77/276UN General Assembly resolution requesting the opinion, adopted by consensus in 2023

2019Year Pacific Island law students launched the campaign

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R (Finch on behalf of the Weald Action Group) v Surrey County Council

Supreme Court of the United Kingdom · 20 June 2024

The UK Supreme Court held that Surrey County Council acted unlawfully when it approved an oil project at Horse Hill without assessing the climate impact of burning the oil the project would produce.

3–2Majority in the Supreme Court; all five justices agreed the question has one right answer

10.6 MtCO2 from burning the oil, as estimated in the council’s own evidence

140,958 tOn-site CO2 counted in the developer’s assessment, described as “negligible”

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